


Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Jessica and Whiskey

by literally_no_idea



Series: Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH) Main Series [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, SDfSH 'verse, Service Animals, Service Dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 16:58:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18056492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literally_no_idea/pseuds/literally_no_idea
Summary: Natasha starts spending more and more time with Jessica, partially because she’s bored and partially because she wants to get to know more about Jessica and the rest of her team. Natasha’s found a breeder for Sam’s dog, and she’s waiting for the next litter of puppies, so while she waits, she figures she might as well try to get to know the new people, especially if they start to become a regular part of the Avengers’ lives.





	Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Jessica and Whiskey

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to the series, or if you're new here, welcome! This part of the series is about Jessica and Whiskey. There is some references to Kilgrave in this story; this includes some subtle references to all the abuse and trauma that comes with him, as well. It's brief and not graphic by any means, but please be safe. With that said, enjoy!

Natasha starts spending more and more time with Jessica, partially because she’s bored and partially because she wants to get to know more about Jessica and the rest of her team. Natasha’s found a breeder for Sam’s dog, and she’s waiting for the next litter of puppies, so while she waits, she figures she might as well try to get to know the new people, especially if they start to become a regular part of the Avengers’ lives.

 

Jessica’s an interesting person to spend time with. She drinks a lot, swears even more, and spends most of her time in bars, doing PI work, or taking on some kind of criminals. She refuses to call her teammates for help, but if one of them calls her, she’s there in under 15 minutes, helping out even if she grumbles and complains the whole time.

 

At this point, Jessica seems to have just accepted that Natasha wants to be around her, and she’s a lot nicer than she would have people believe; when Nat shows up at Jessica’s apartment in the mornings, Jessica already has a cup of coffee ready for her, made exactly the way Nat likes it, and she’s started keeping a small stash of the gross, dollar store candy that Natasha likes in her kitchen.

 

Natasha returns the favor; she almost always brings some of Jessica’s favorite chocolate along with her, and she makes it a point to bring some higher-quality alcohol occasionally. Jessica seems initially resistant to the idea of being given gifts, or anything nice, really, so Natasha tries to make it seem more like she’s just sharing the things she brings, not giving it to Jessica directly.

 

They spend a lot of their time complaining about their teammates, and Natasha loves listening to Jessica talk about her team. “Seriously, for a Catholic, he does some really fucked up shit, but he still hates swearing with a passion, like any ‘I go to church every Sunday, but fuck daily morals’ asshole,” Jessica complains after one night when she goes to help Matt get out of a particularly dangerous fight.

 

Natasha laughs, and tells Jessica about the time Steve had dislocated a guy’s shoulder for making advances on Nat, then scolded the guy for swearing in pain. It had been both a really ridiculous show of strength and completely unnecessary, because Nat could have shattered the guy’s wrist in one move, but she had appreciated the sentiment. It was nice to know that someone cared that much about her.

 

About three weeks after they start spending time together, Jessica asks Natasha a question she honestly hadn’t expected. “So, you’ve been training all these service dogs, right?” They’re sitting on Jessica’s bed eating candy and drinking at 3am on a Tuesday, because nothing matters and time is irrelevant.

 

Natasha nods, not sure where exactly this is going. “I have, it started because of one dog, but it’s actually something I think I enjoy doing. Why?”

 

“I was wondering if you could get one for Luke,” Jessica says, and Natasha’s definitely confused now.

 

“Okay. What does Luke need help with?”

 

Jessica eats another two pieces of chocolate and washes them down with some rum. “Well, you said they can alert to medical problems. Can they alert to internal bleeding? Because like, Luke’s got unbreakable skin, but not indestructible organs.”

 

Natasha thinks about it for a minute. “I’m not entirely sure how it would work, but I can think about it,” she says finally, and Jessica nods.

 

“Cool. That’s all I’m really asking. He could use the help. I worry sometimes, because he’s a good person, and I’ve seen him almost die before because of internal bleeding, and I can’t-- I don’t want to lose him.”

 

“I know what you mean. I’m not sure what I would do if I lost Clint.” There’s a few moments of silence before Natasha speaks again. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

 

If they weren’t both decently tired and drunk, Natasha’s pretty sure Jessica wouldn’t have said anything, but as it is, Jessica lets out a breath and starts talking.

 

“I was-- There was this guy. He fucked me up pretty bad, in more ways than one. He used me. My brain. My body. I didn’t know. I don’t know. It was a lot. And then, I’d started spending time with Luke, and he found out, and Kilg-- this guy controlled Luke, and I had to shoot Luke to get him to stop, and the bullet didn’t break the skin, but he started bleeding internally, and our friend, Claire, she finally figured out a way to help, but I was so scared that I had killed him. That I really was the monster I thought I was. And he’s okay now, but I don’t want that to happen again. I don’t want that risk again.”

 

It’s a lot to process-- Natasha had known there was more to the stories she’d found online about the incident with Jessica and that guy on the pier, but she hadn’t quite expected this. It’s easy enough to accept though, really; she’s dealt with literal Norse gods in recent years, so this isn’t the weirdest thing she’s heard lately. “It wasn’t your fault,” she says gently, and she knows how hard it is to believe something like that, but she’s also willing to say it as many times as she has to; she knows what it’s like to think that way, and she’s not going to let someone else get through that kind of self-hatred alone.

 

“Yeah, sure,” Jessica says, and her eyes are watering as she says it. “Just. See if you can help him, okay?”

 

Natasha nods, and they fall into a fairly comfortable silence, eating candy and drinking until they both crash at about 5am.

 

* * *

 

Natasha searches around for information that could help her determine if a service dog will help Luke, but it’s slow going. In the meantime, she gets an email back from the breeder for Sam’s dog saying they’ll have a litter in about six months, so she has a while to wait. She spends a few days doing research for Luke’s dog, but eventually decides to put that idea aside for the moment, and she heads down to the local humane society.

 

Natasha’s become a regular at the humane society, whether she’s looking at dogs for candidates as service dogs, volunteering to help with the animals, or just flat out spending time with some of the cats because she can, and one of the staff members, Riley, waves at her as she walks in.

 

Riley had been the one to meet with Natasha the first time she came looking for a dog, and they’re a good person; usually people freak out about meeting an Avenger, but Riley had just introduced themself with their name and pronouns, and asked if Natasha needed help with anything.

 

“Hey Nat! Looking for another dog?” Riley asks, coming out from behind the adoption counter.

 

“Yeah. Any new dogs you think might be good?”

 

“Well, we just got a male German Shepherd three days ago that might be good, and last week we got a female Boxer that also might do well.”

 

Natasha thinks about it for a minute. “Can I meet the Boxer?”

 

“Sure! If you head back to visiting room four, I’ll bring her out to meet you.” Riley heads down the hall to the dog kennels, and they join Natasha in the visiting room, a brindle Boxer by their side. “Here she is! She was found as a stray, and we named her Sora. She seems to do well with most things; obviously she’ll need some training, but she’s a good kid. If you need anything, I’ll be at the front desk, just leave Sora here and come talk to me,” Riley says, and they slip the lead off of Sora, leaving Natasha alone in the room with her.

 

Natasha sits down on the floor cross legged, holding her hand out to the dog. Sora approaches her quickly, sniffing her hand, and then flops on her back on Natasha’s lap, wriggling happily. Natasha laughs, rubbing Sora’s belly. She takes a few moments to play with Sora, then starts testing a few things.

 

She stands up, crossing her arms in front of her and glaring at Sora, and Sora just comes up, trying to lick at Natasha’s hands to be pet again. Natasha keeps stepping away from her, repeating “knock it off” louder and more aggressively each time, but Sora keeps following her until Natasha sits back down again, gently scratching the bridge of Sora’s nose.

 

Natasha abruptly stops petting Sora, curling herself up into a ball and pretending to cry. Sora nudges at her hands and face, trying to get Natasha’s attention, and Nat goes back to sitting normally, petting her again.

 

She tries a few more things with the dog, and overall she likes the responses she’s getting, so she heads up to the front desk. “I think you’re right, she’s a great candidate,” she tells Riley. “Can we do the adoption paperwork?”

 

She heads back to the tower with Sora an hour later, and on the way she comes up with a new name for her. They arrive on the communal floor just as everyone’s settling down for lunch in the living room, and she lets the dog off leash to greet the people and dogs in the room. “Everyone, say hi to Whiskey,” she says, and based on the looks on everyone’s faces and the way Whiskey has already started to play with Smash and Verity, this won’t be a problem.

 

* * *

 

Whiskey’s training goes quickly; she’s naturally loving, and very good at ignoring negative responses. Natasha figures that one of the biggest parts of Whiskey’s job will be getting Jessica to accept her help, so making sure that Whiskey will stubbornly persist with her tasks is crucial.

 

Natasha spends the first couple weeks just teaching Whiskey what responses she’s looking for, and teaching her the groundwork of most of her tasks. All of the tasks are for Jessica’s PTSD, so Natasha teaches Whiskey to check rooms before her handler enters the room, to block people from interacting with her handler, to guide her out of places, to help with nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety attacks, and dissociation, as well as help with anger outbursts.

 

She teaches Whiskey to alert by pawing at Natasha’s leg, then jump up on her if she doesn’t respond after a minute or two. She teaches Whiskey to check rooms, then come back and bump Natasha’s hand with her nose if the room is safe, and Natasha teaches Whiskey to block between her and others. Once Whiskey has her tasks down, Natasha starts making it harder.

 

About two months after getting Whiskey, when Natasha starts to fake an outburst of anger, she doesn’t stop the first few times the dog paws at her, or the first few times she jumps on her, either. She starts moving to avoid Whiskey, but the dog follows her, still trying to task. She praises Whiskey and rewards her for doing so well, and then she keeps repeating the process, making it harder and harder for Whiskey to succeed in “calming her down.”

 

By four months, Natasha’s fairly confident in Whiskey’s skills, and she texts Jessica to tell her that she’s on her way over, getting Whiskey geared up in her black fabric harness and black velcro cape and heading out of the tower. Jessica meets them at the door to her apartment, but frowns when she sees Whiskey.

 

“What the fuck?”

 

If nothing else, Natasha always loves how blunt Jessica is. “This is Whiskey, she’s here to be your service dog.”

 

Jessica lets them in, but she’s clearly not thrilled about this. “And why did you get me a dog? You know I just use alcohol to cope, right? And naming the dog after my favorite booze isn’t going to just change my mind.”

 

“Maybe not. But she’s trained for you, and I think she’d really help you. You don’t have to keep her though. I got her from the humane society, and I can always surrender her back to them,” Natasha says, and Jessica glares at her.

 

“Yeah, that wasn’t guilt trippy. Fucking rude, Romanoff.”

 

Natasha raises an eyebrow. “‘Romanoff’? Thought we were first name basis, Jones.”

 

“Were, past tense. For now. Fine, I’ll keep the fucking dog, at least until you find a new owner. Headed out?”

 

Natasha leaves, and she knows that Jessica’s pissed right now, she gets that, she’d hidden this from her and Jessica hates surprises, but she has a feeling that things will work out. She doesn’t bother looking for a new owner, because if this doesn’t work out, she’s sure Whiskey will do fine with one of the others on Natasha’s list, but she’s confident it will work out anyway.

 

* * *

 

Three days later, Natasha goes back to Jessica’s apartment, and Jessica answers on the second knock, something which has never happened before; usually Jessica yells that the door is open and goes back to drinking. Today, however, Jessica opens the door, actually looking mostly alert and… sober? Jessica steps back to let Natasha in, and closes the door behind her.

 

“So, you found a new owner for Whiskey by now?” Jessica asks, and Natasha can hear the tightness of Jessica's voice, the underlying tension of the words.

 

“No, I haven’t, not yet. I hope she hasn’t caused you too much trouble.” Natasha follows Jessica to the actual office area of her apartment, where Whiskey is laying underneath Jessica’s desk, sleeping. She wakes up as they walk into the room, yawning, and Natasha catches Jessica smiling fondly at the dog.

 

“No trouble at all, actually. You’re right, you trained her well.” There’s a moment of silence, and Jessica sighs. “Okay, fine. She’s been better than just no trouble. She’s helped. A lot. I’ve slept more in the last three days than I have in the last three months. I hate it, but you’re fucking right. Happy, Romanoff? Whiskey helps, and not just the actual booze. So I’d like to keep her.”

 

Natasha can’t keep the grin off her face. “That’s good, I’m glad she’s helping you. And I love you too, Jess.”

 

“Fuck off, Nat.”

 

Yeah, things are going to be okay between them. And now, since they’re back on a first name basis…

 

“So, I was looking into a dog for Luke like you asked me to, and I think it’ll work. I need some more information about Luke though, and I thought you could help with that.”

 

Jessica nods, gesturing at the chair in front of her desk. “Take a seat, let’s talk. I’m not a PI for nothing. What do you need to know?”

**Author's Note:**

> Today's service dog facts:
> 
> -Some service dogs have to learn to be incredibly persistent in their tasks for one reason or another; in this story, Natasha trains Whiskey to be nonstop in tasking until her handler responds appropriately. I can speak from personal experience that I have days where trying to get me to do what's best for me is like trying to convince a cat that going swimming is a great idea. This means a need for constant, repeated tasking on the service dog's part until their handler responds.
> 
> -The positive impact on a disabled person's life after getting a service dog can be almost immediate; I once talked to a lady whose sister trained service dogs for war veterans with PTSD. She said that her sister had a client that got their service dog, learned to work with them, and went home, and the handler called her back a few days later saying that thanks to their new service dog, they slept all the way through the night with little to no nightmares for the first time in over 3 months. In this story, we see Jessica looking far better put together and more sober than normal a few days after getting Whiskey. This kind of radical life improvement doesn't happen for every new service dog handler, but it can happen.
> 
> -It is absolutely possible to get a service dog candidate from the humane society! However, there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind if this is the route you choose: you likely won't know the dog's health/breed history, so you may not get the right size/health of dog you need; you will very likely need to untrain certain behaviors before you can train new ones, like training a dog not to bark constantly, not to jump on people, etc; and you'll also need to give the dog time to adjust to their new life, as many dogs tend to behave differently in the first few months at their new home than they will once they're comfortable with you.
> 
> If you're not sure whether to get a dog from a breeder or from a shelter, or have other questions about what dog would be best for you, a great resource on this topic from Psychatric Service Dog Partners can be found [ here ](https://www.psychdogpartners.org/resources/getting-a-dog/choosing-the-right-dog)
> 
> That's it for today, if you'd like to see more of my drabbles and notes related to this series or want to talk to me about this series (or anything else, for that matter), you can find me over on tumblr [ here ](https://servicedogsforsuperheroes.tumblr.com)
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


End file.
